Quick release mechanism for sewage lagoon aeration guns

ABSTRACT

An anchoring device is provided for an aeration gun which has two trunnions on it so that two men in a boat can release or replace a gun from the surface of the liquid of an aerated sewage lagoon. The anchoring device comprises the provision of two slots to accept the trunnions and two vertical elongated guide bars to control the direction of the gun as it is pushed downwardly against the force of its own buoyancy. The elongated guide bars are free to move axially as they are located in sleeves. In the retracted position (raised) they allow the trunnions to enter or leave the slots but in the normal position they are down and prevent the trunnions leaving the slots when the gun is in position. Preferably the slots are concyclic so that the trunnions may be held against the guide bars by applying twist to the gun.

[ 1 June 27, 1972 QUICK RELEASE MECHANISM FOR SEWAGE LAGOON AERATION GUNS Inventors: Declan S. Murphy; Rolland C. H. Charest,

both of Montreal, Quebec, Canada Atara Corporation, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Filed: Sept. 25, 1970 App]. No.: 75,652

Assignee:

U.S. Cl. ..261/121 R, 248/49 Int. Cl. ..BOIf 3/04 Field of Search... ..261/121 R, DIG. 47; 248/49 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS LIQUID FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 746,669 11/1966 Canada ..261/12] R Primary Examiner--Tim R. Miles Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher [57] ABSTRACT An anchoring device is provided for an aeration gun which has two trunnions on it so that two men in a boat can release or replace a gun from the surface of the liquid of an aerated sewage lagoon. The anchoring device comprises the provision of two slots to accept the trunnions and two vertical elongated guide bars to control the direction of the gun as it is pushed downwardly against the force of its own buoyancy. The elongated guide bars are free to move axially as they are located in sleeves. In the retracted position (raised) they allow the trunnions to enter or leave the slots but in the normal position they are down and prevent the trunnions leaving the slots when the gun is in position. Preferably the slots are concyclic so that the trunnions may be held against the guide bars by applying twist to the gun.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures LEVEL.

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II I I QUICK RELEASE MECHANISM FOR SEWAGE LAGOON AERA'IION GUNS This invention relates to a device for anchoring an aeration gun to the bottom of a sewage lagoon, and more particularly to such a device which will allow the gun to be released without draining the lagoon.

Previous devices of this sort have comprised a heavy plate with two diametrically opposed upstanding brackets. A clearance bolt passing through each bracket and the adjacent wall of the gun and act as a hinge. Sometimes the plate is omitted and in this case the brackets are grouted into the concrete floor of the lagoon.

This simple system has the disadvantage thatit is sometimes necessary to inspect the guns particularly at their lower working ends; this requires men in diving equipment with powerful flashlights as the visibility is 4 to 6 inches. It is occasionally necessary to replace a gun, and this causes problems if the lagoon is full as the buoyancy of a gun (usually l2 inches inside diameter, inch wall thickness, 8 feet high in plastic) is about 60 pounds which cannot easily be countered by a man in diving equipment; if the lagoon has been emptied all the guns subside onto the lagoon floor and some may even become stuck in the inevitable slime which gradually hardens. More likely, it takes some time for all the guns to resume the vertical operating position.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a quick release locking mechanism.

It is a second object of this invention to provide a guide so that a gun may be entered into the anchoring device by men in a boat on the surface of the lagoon.

It is an object in the more limited aspect of this invention to provide a device preventing the gun from leaning over and subsiding as the liquid level drops.

The invention will be understood more easily by reference to the drawings which illustrate an example of one embodiment of the invention, and in these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the gun and anchoring device;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the same;

FIG. 3 is a section at line III-Ill of FIG. 2.

In these drawings the gun is shown as 2; the internal details of such guns are not important as the invention is in the anchoring device. However, a typical gun, known in the trade as a burp-gun," is shown in Canadian Pat. No. 746,669.

Straps 4 are attached to the gun at diametrically opposed points by nut and bolt assemblies, 6. Each strap 4 has a lug or trunnion 8 projecting radially outwardly from the gun axis as may best be seen from FIG. 3. These trunnions are of half-inch pipe (is. 0.84 inches outside diameter) and are 3 inches long.

The other major component comprises two anchoring assemblies 10 as shown on FIG. 2 which are arranged in skew relationship across the axis as shown in FIG. 3. It will be easily understood, in FIG. 1, that that part of the outline of the second assembly which would have been visible has been suppressed in order not to confuse the profile of the nearer assembly.

Each assembly 10, then comprises a steel 2 X 3 X angle iron, 12, welded to a steel plate 14, the whole being of sufficient weight to counteract the gun buoyancy. I prefer to make the angle irons about 13 inches long overall-it will be understood that these dimensions are in no .sense critical but are mentioned as the drawing may give the incorrect impression of size; this is because it must show the invention in all its aspects and incorporate a 96 inch tall gun 2, and hence a height discontinuity is necessary.

Each angle iron 12 has a 1 inch wide slot 16 to accept trunnion 8, the lower edge of the slot being about 7 inches above the plate 14. A inch thick plate, 20, rhombus shaped, is welded to the front edge of the angle iron with its upper edge 22 level with slot edge 18. This facilitates anchoring by providing a guide for the trunnions 8; this plate which we call a stopper plate has the rhombus side length of 1% inches and the offset is three-quarter inch to give an inclination of about 27" to the horizontal. The downward facing upper edge 24 of the slot 16 has a A inch 45 chamfer 26 which also helps the slot 16 to accept the trunnion easily; and acts to retain the gun against its buoyancy.

The axes of the two elongated guide bars 30 are located by a 6 inch long sleeve of 1 inch nominal diameter iron pipe 28 which is welded to each angle iron, E2, as may be understood best by referring to FIGS. 2 and 3. This has an inside diameter of 0.957 inch and easily accepts elongated guide bar 30 of standard half-inch pipe which has an outside diameter of 0.840. It should perhaps be mentioned that this clearance of iron-to-iron in a liquid which is mainly aerated water is adequate; rust does not form due to the inhibiting effect of the slime which is deposited on all metal surfaces. For this reason,

all parts may be made of the inexpensive iron commonly known as black mild steel.

Each elongated guide bar 30 is about 9 feet long and is free to slide in the sleeve 28; besides being a guide as will be explained further below, each rod also functions as a lock which normally prevents trunnion 8 from slipping out of slot 16. However, if the rods are raised until their lower end is above the upper edge 24 of slot 16, and if a twist is then applied to the gun in an anticlockwise sense (viewed on FIG. 3) then the gun will float upwardly to the surface of the liquid level. A stop 32 in the form of a half-inch pipe coupling is screwed onto the lower end of each guide 30 to prevent its being lifted out of the sleeve 28 inadvertently when releasing the gun.

At the upper end of the pipe a ring 34 formed of l X 54 mild steel section has two dowels 36 welded to it at diametrically opposed points. These dowels need only be 1 inch long or thereabouts because even when the pool is drained ring 34 keeps the gun within 2 inches from the vertical, so that sideways forces are small and little strength is needed.

The operation of the device has been partly explained above for releasing the gun 2, and the reverse procedure may be obvious. Thus, when it is desired to install a gun all operations may be carried out from a boat by two men. First, ring 34 is removed so that the gun axis may be changed from horizontal to vertical while the gun is floating. It is then pushed downwardly between the guide bars 30 by one man who also keeps a slight clockwise torque (as viewed on FIG. 3) to keep the trunnions against them. The second man lifts rods 30 until the stops 32 bear against the lower end of sleeve 28 and when the gun is pushed down so far that trunnions 8 contact stopper plate 20 the slight torque causes them to enter slots 16. When they are home in these slots, rods 30 are released so that they prevent the trunnions from leaving the slot and the ring 34 is replaced.

The reason that assembly 10 and angles 12 are arranged skew symmetrically is that we have found that it is easier for a man in a boat to apply a torque to the gun while pushing downwardly rather than pushing downwardly and slightly sideways to maintain pressure against the same side of guide bars 30. Thus, we prefer to call the arrangement concyclic.

While there has been shown and described what is at present considered the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention as defined by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A device, suitable for anchoring an aeration gun which has a pair of external lugs to the bottom of a sewage lagoon, compnsrng:

two upstanding members extending upwardly from the lagoon floor, each having a downward facing edge so that together the edges can retain the gun by the lugs,

an axial locating means secured to each upstanding member; and

two elongated movable guide bars, one in each axial locating means, the axial locating means being positioned so that when the guide bars are extended the lugs are prevented from leaving the downward facing edge and when retracted the lugs are enabled to leave the downward facing edge,

the guide bars being of approximately the same length as or longer than the aeration gun so as to both form a guide to cause the lugs to engage the downward facing edges and also to allow the operation of extension and retraction to be carried out from a location close to the upper end of the gun.

2. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 in which the downward facing edge is the upper edge of an open ended slot and the lateral extensions are trunnions.

3. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 2 in which the opening of the slots are concyclic, so that the trunnions may enter the slots by rotation of the gun about its longitudinal axis.

4. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 3 in which a stopper plate is secured to each upstanding member with the upper surface of the stopper plate level with the lower edge of the slot so as to assist the entry of the trunnions into the slot.

5. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 in which the elongated guide bars are made of hollow pipe.

6. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 5 in which the axial locating means are also made of hollow pipe.

7. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising a removable ring adjacent but below the upper end of the gun and is held in position by the guide bars. 

1. A device, suitable for anchoring an aeration gun which has a pair of external lugs to the bottom of a sewage lagoon, comprising: two upstanding members extending upwardly from the lagoon floor, each having a downward facing edge so that together the edges can retain the gun by the lugs, an axial locating means secured to each upstanding member; and two elongated movable guide bars, one in each axial locating means, the axial locating means being positioned so that when the guide bars are extended the lugs are prevented from leaving the downward facing edge and when retracted the lugs are enabled to leave the downward facing edge, the guide bars being of approximately the same length as or longer than the aeration gun so as to both form a guide to cause the lugs to engage the downward facing edges and also to allow the operation of extension and retraction to be carried out from a location close to the upper end of the gun.
 2. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 in which the downward facing edge is the upper edge of an open ended slot and the lateral extensions are trunnions.
 3. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 2 in which the opening of the slots are concyclic, so that the trunnions may enter the slots by rotation of the gun about its longitudinal axis.
 4. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 3 in which a stopper plate is secured to each upstanding member with the upper surface of the stopper plate level with the lower edge of the slot so as to assist the entry of the trunnions into the slot.
 5. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 in which the elongated guide bars are made of hollow pipe.
 6. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 5 in which the axial locating means are also made of hollow pipe.
 7. An anchoring device as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising a removable ring adjacent but below the upper end of the gun and is held in position by the guide bars. 